Mark Waid Archives – Bent Corner

Ethan Van Sciver blocked me on Twitter

Last week Ethan Van Sciver, the glorious leader of Comicsgate blocked me on Twitter. The reason? He’s good at throwing insults, but not so good at hearing the truth.

It started when I commented on someone’s tweet about a donor to Richard C. Meyer’s lawsuit campaign. Meyer is suing comic book writer Mark Waid for slander and tortious interference. When Waid started a legal defense fundraiser on GoFundMe to help pay for his lawyer, Van Sciver responded by starting a similar fundraiser for Meyer.

Waid’s list of donors reads like a who’s who in the world of funny books. Meyer’s list of donors, not so much. One of Meyer’s donors is someone named Nancy Balbutin-Collins. She donated $11,000 to help Meyer sue Waid. She’s now the third highest donor to Meyer’s fundraiser.

Who is Nancy Balbutin-Collins?

Renfamous, Comicsgate’s number one enemy and one of the best people to follow on Twitter, googled Nancy Balbutin-Collins’ name and the first result was a real estate agent in Northern California. Renfamous then posted a screenshot of her real estate agent page, minus her contact information along with a funny comment.

The screenshot was interesting because it showed Nancy Balbutin-Collins is not the type of person one would normally associate with comic books, let alone something as toxic as Comicsgate.

Comicsgate supporters responded to Renfamous’ screenshot by claiming it doxxed Nancy Balbutin-Collins. As you can see from the above tweet, this claim is not true. Nancy Balbutin-Collins chose to give to the fundraiser with her full name. She could have donated anonymously. When someone googles that name, the see her real estate agent page. If that’s doxxing, than Google and Ask Jeeves dox people every single millisecond. I tweeted something to that effect. This prompted Ethan Van Sciver to insult me by claiming I used to have ethics.

Who does Van Sciver think he is to comment about my ethics?

That was… strange. I have many weaknesses and flaws. A lack of ethics is not one of them. I’m a very ethical person. I responded to his insult about me, not with an insult toward him, but some much-needed truth about me.

Minutes later, Van Sciver responded with more insults.

How rich that he would dare accuse anyone else of engaging in a harassment campaign. He is the undisputed leader of Comicsgate, a group of people who constantly harass people. And what in the hell is a “lickspittle“? Did someone buy Van Sciver a Dennis Prager word-of-the-day calendar?

Conservative smarty-pants, Dennis Prager.

Not only have I never heard that word used in a sentence, but I’m also quite confident I’ll never hear it used ever again.

I pointed out to Van Sciver that he’s in no position to criticize and insult my ethics.

Ethan Van Sciver should feel embarrassed to insult someone’s ethics when he clearly has a problem in that area of his life. Part of being an ethical person is paying your debts. It’s unethical not to, especially when you have the means to do so.

Before the emergence as Donald Trump as the face of the Republican Party, most Democrat voters thought Mitt Romney was kind of a jerk. In retrospect, Mitt Romney is a wonderful and decent guy.

Remember, according to Mitt Romney, the candidate Van Sciver supported for president in 2012, corporations are people. When you stiff a corporation the money you agreed to pay them, you’re stiffing people.

Van Sciver responded a few hours later.

Van Sciver fails to realize foreclosure records are not private. They are public records. Nobody stole them. Too bad for him he didn’t consider that when he decided to simply not to pay his mortgage.

I found it ironic he called me a “piece of shit” yet of the two of us, I’m the one who pays his debts. Ethan Van Sciver does not. I was going to reply to his tweet, but then immediately after saying “fuck you” and calling me a “piece of shit,” he blocked me.

The only time I heard about Ethan Van Sciver’s foreclosure was on his own YouTube channel

I didn’t learn of Van Sciver’s foreclosure from an SJW unless he is an SJW. I learned about it from him. He talked about it on two of his YouTube live streams. Van Sciver deleted one but left the first one on YouTube. He begins talking about his foreclosure at around the 21-minute mark.

According to Van Sciver, in 2015 he owned a house in North Carolina and didn’t want to live there anymore. He wanted to return to New Jersey so he could be with his now current wife. She couldn’t move to North Carolina because of a child custody situation. According to Van Sciver, he owned more on the house than it was worth, so selling it was out of the question. He said he was advised to walk away from the house and rent for the next three years.

Ethical people pay their debts

Van Sciver didn’t say who advised him just walk away from a house he still owed money on, a house he could afford to pay. Is walking away from a house because you don’t want to live in it any more unethical? When you still have the means to pay for, one hundred percent yes.

Van Sciver didn’t say he couldn’t afford the mortgage. He said he just didn’t want to live there anymore. It’s unethical behavior like this that makes it difficult for normal, honest people to get a mortgage. I would never walk away from my mortgage because I wanted to live somewhere else. It’s unethical and irresponsible. Van Sciver has no business accusing me of being unethical. I pay my debts. He does not.

Just to be absolutely clear

I do not have a problem with Ethan Van Sciver blocking me on Twitter. It’s not like I place value in what the man has to say. Not anymore. What I took issue with was how he did it. He sought me out to insult me. He implied I’m not ethical. I corrected him. He insulted me again with the same disparaging accusation. I pointed out that he was in no position to insult my ethics. I told him why. He then told me “fuck you” and said I was a “piece of shit.” He then immediately blocked me so that I could not respond.

What makes his behaviour even more outrageous is that I am his customer. I paid $35 for his 48-page CyberFrog comic back when I supported Comicsgate. He knows this. And I thought Comicsgate was about comic book professionals treating customers with respect.

I block people on Twitter, but I don’t block people after I instigate trouble with them. I don’t instigate trouble with anyone, not on Twitter or anywhere else. Unlike Ethan Van Sciver, I don’t seek out to create drama. I don’t like drama.

Top artwork by the great Aaron A Alvarez.

Richard C. Meyer files lawsuit against Mark Waid

Richard C. Meyer, the man behind the Comics & Diversity YouTube channel, filed a lawsuit in federal court against comic book writer Mark Waid. He claims Waid committed “tortious interference of a contract” upon him. This relates to the incident when Meyer announced Antarctic Press was going to publish his comic Jawbreakers: Lost Souls only to have the publisher back out of the deal that same day. Meyer alleges it was because Mark Waid contacted the publisher and forced them to cancel the deal.

Richard C. Meyer also claims Waid defamed him. Meyer is seeking damages exceeding $75,000.

I don’t see the point of this lawsuit. What could Mark Waid say that would defame Richard C. Meyer more than he’s already defamed himself? Meyer has a bad reputation in the comic book community because he’s worked hard at earning it. He has hundreds of videos on YouTube where he says terrible things about people. Meyer refers to this activity as “roasting.” He focuses much of his roasting on women and minority comic book professionals, particularly members of the LGBT community. This roasting seems disproportionate considering most comic book professionals aren’t women or minorities.

Had Antarctic Press spent any time watching Meyer’s more disturbing videos? If they had, they probably would not have wanted to do business with him.

Where are the damages?

Because Meyer could not find a publisher to publish Jawbreakers: Lost Souls, he focused on selling the book solely through Indiegogo at a minimum of $35 per book. So far he’s made $397,104 on Indiegogo. That’s far more than he would have made if he found a conventional publisher such as Antarctic Press to publish the book. The book can still be purchased on Indiegogo for $35.

Part of the book’s appeal is the claim social justice warriors (SJWs) don’t want people to read the book. As one of the leaders of Comicsgate, Meyer complains vigorously on YouTube about the evils of SJWs. He claims SJWs are ruining comic books and causing comic book shops to go out of business.

If Mark Waid caused Antarctic Press to back out of its deal with Richard Meyer, he should thank Waid, not sue him. There’s no doubt Meyer has benefited greatly from publishing the book himself. Furthermore, what would Comicsgators do if they didn’t have SJWs to bemoan about?

Where’s the GoFundMe campaign?

Now that news of the lawsuit has been made public, I’m sure Meyer will start a GoFundMe campaign so Comicsgators can help pay for the lawsuit. That’s what leaders in Comicsgate do when they want to sue someone, they create a GoFundMe campaign and ask people to give them money. Perhaps Mark Waid will create a GoFundMe campaign. Comic book Internet drama fans can then see which campaign raises the most money. Considering how many comic book professionals Meyer has maligned and insulted, my money’s on Waid.

Rob Granito has his comic con privileges revoked

This past weekend at MegaCon, comic book writer Mark Waid and comic book artist Ethan Van Sciver harassed pretend comic book artist Rob Granito. They took exception to a comment he made about comic book writer Dwayne McDuffie, who died late last month. Granito posted a statement on Facebook claiming that he had worked with McDuffie and he implied that the two men were friends.

Granito never worked with McDuffie, nor were they ever friends. He made it up to help give himself credibility as a professional comic book artist.

Granito makes money by claiming to be a professional comic book artist and then charging people money for original comic book themed art. Granito creates the art by tracing the work of others. He’s been doing this for years. If you’ve been to a comic book convention in the past several years, you’ve probably seen Granito sitting at a booth, peddling his awful looking fakes.

Mark Waid posted about the encounter on Facebook:

Rob Granito, you’ve been served

So there you have it. Rob Granito has officially had his funny book convention privileges revoked. When someone as prominent as Sheriff of All Comicons Mark Waid tells you it’s your last comic book convention, it’s your last comic book convention.

Wizard World has already announced that Rob Granito is now banned from their shows. You can expect all the rest to follow suit.

Do not be a douchebag

Let this be a lesson to douchebags everywhere. While it’s acceptable to go to a comic book convention and pretend to be Spider-Man or Darth Vader, it’s not acceptable to pretend you’re real-life comic book artist. Mark Waid and Ethan Van Sciver won’t yell at you if you pretend to be a Klingon, but they will yell at you if you pretend to be a comic book artist.

I think it’s funny that when Mark Waid wanted to confront Rob Granito, he grabbed Ethan Van Sciver first. Mark Waid may be loud, but he’s not very physically intimidating. Rob Granito could probably easily kick Mark Waid’s ass. The same cannot be said about Ethan Van Sciver. How does Waid reward Sciver for his help? By referring to him later on Facebook as a Nazi.

That’s classic Mark Waid.